[135] Amen. of Lit. ii. 69.

[136] Hist. of E. P. ii. 356.

[137]

“In hevyn blyse ye xalle wyn to be

Amonge the blyssyd company omnium supernorum

Ther as is alle merth joye and glee

Inter agmina angelorum

In blyse to abyde.”

Coventry Mysteries,—MS. Cott. Vesp. D. viii. fol. 112.

A reprint of Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s Workes having appeared in 1736, Pope took occasion, during the next year, to mention them in the following terms,—casting a blight on our poet’s reputation, from which it has hardly yet recovered;